When University of Michigan medical student Paul DeWolf was shot to death earlier this year, police had few leads.

That all changed when a stolen MacBook Air revealed a key piece of information — and helped police track down the alleged killers.

According to reports, at around the time DeWolf was murdered last July, his suspected assailants also stole a MacBook belonging to DeWolf’s next-door neighbor.

The MacBook in question was then sold on Craigslist to a man living in Detroit. When the buyer turned on the laptop for the first time in October, the original owner’s Find My Mac function kicked in, ultimately allowing police to trace the sale back to two men: Shaquille Jones, 21, and Joei Jordan, 20 — both of whom have now been charged with DeWolf’s murder.

Apple’s Find My iPhone/Find My Mac function has helped locate hundreds of stolen devices around the world. And now it may have helped bring two suspected killers to justice as well.

About the author

Luke Dormehl is a UK-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems, And Create More and The Apple Revolution, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme, and other publications. He'd like you a lot if you followed him on Twitter.

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